Manresa Castle | Scenes From the Lily Pad

http://www.manresacastle.com/

A few months ago my husband and I visited Manresa Castle. It was such a fun experience and the staff was good about giving me a quick tour. I received a bounce-back discount (as do all customers who stay at the castle) that allowed me 50% off so my girlfriends and I decided to take the “haunted” castle for a special spin.

10958738_10205737888507475_1156558876_o — We stayed in the upper turret room on the right. Just below where the Jesuit priest hung himself.

10960638_10205744582354817_1864079601_o — Night Shot. I was astonished to be able to catch the visibility of the stars with my iphone.

10965116_10205744582594823_330434913_o — The back courtyard

10967110_10205747647751450_578837849_o — Barbed Brick perimeter fence

10967096_10205747621430792_1621240052_o — Infrared

Mirror in lobby

A little girl named Lotta is alleged to frequent this room

Lotta likes this room. A supposedly mischievous 13 year old girl

Suite 304, just below the Jesuit hanging site

Suite 302 Kate’s room

Suite 302, the window Kate Jumped from

First Floor bar

Fireplace in bar

First floor ladies room

Ladies room interior

Light fixture Ladies room

First floor Gentlemen’s room

heading from 2nd to 3rd floor

The breakfast area. It used to be a chapel. Kate has warned via ouiji board not to use the board in this area

Hall decor

Upper dance area

The Rooftop Access

The first visit I was here I noticed the Roof Access Door. Locked. It had a window above it with a mechanism to open. Didn’t work. I know. I tried three times. I asked Lindsey about this as we passed the door again, telling her I had previously attempted. She informed me the door had been locked for years.

So I turned the knob and it opened. She looked a bit taken aback, her surprise didn’t seem feigned. Excited I opened the door to find a light socket on the right and a set of very dusty stairs that went up and then turned left. I headed halfway up the stairs before Lindsey stopped me and told me she needed to go first as it may be hazardous. I asked her to take my camera and photograph the scene after she turned the stairs. The bottom picture is hers. After you turn left, the stairs go up to a completely open hole to the exterior. She wouldn’t let me go because of the stairs had holes. She didn’t walk to the open window either. It looked like there used to be a window there.

When I asked the gal at the front desk she reported a windstorm had blown off that window some time before.

10988647_10205744346548922_949846234_o — Light switch inside the Roof stairwell.

10964784_10205744346428919_2086639212_o — The first set of steps on the stairwell, it turns left at the top.

899651_10205744345308891_1118613335_o — The second stairwell leads to an open space where a window apparently used to be.

The Basement

I did not see the basement in my previous visit so I was pretty excited when Lindsey told me she’d take us down there. The laundry room is down there. Lindsey also showed me the original brickwork and then allowed me access to the crawl space under the castle. It was pretty big crawl space, I was able to stand in it.

10968643_10205744344708876_1645878708_o — Door to basement

10968167_10205744374229614_49186056_n — Crawl space

10967109_10205744342188813_382648064_o — Original brickwork

10969028_10205744342788828_2109403623_o — Original mudded brick

DSCF6086 — Weird foggy window in basement

DSCF6087 — Entrance of basement from outside

The Attic

10967186_10205744348308966_935484018_o — The Jesuit nuns used this sink in the attic to wash laundry. It is still intact and in same position. It hasn’t been used for a very long time.

About the Castle and its Hauntings

Manresa Castle was originally completed in 1892 as the home of Charles and Kate Eisenbeis. Charles Eisenbeis was a prominent member of early Port Townsend (He was the first mayor), when the port was the most active in the Pacific Northwest. The twelve inch thick walls of his thirty room mansion were made of brick from Charles Eisenbeis’s own brickworks. Locals came to call the building “Eisenbeis Castle.” In 1902 Charles Eisenbeis died, and the mansion was left empty when Kate remarried.

In 1925 an attorney bought the property and made it a vacation house for nuns who are teaching students in Seattle. However, this did not work out quite well and the castle became a training college for Jesuits. In 1927 it was purchased by Jesuits who turned it into a training college and renamed it Manresa Hall. It is the Jesuits who built the large extension to the original building and covered the brick walls of the original section to keep it more in line with the new wing. In 1968 the Jesuits left and it became a hotel.

Ghostly Rumors

There are reports that hotel’s rooms 302, 304 and 306 are frequented by two resident ghosts. There is reportedly a monk who hung himself in the castle’s attic. To this day, people can still hear the footsteps of the monk in the attic. The other ghost is that of a young lady who had been waiting for her beloved to return from war. When she heard the news that her beloved died in war, she threw herself out of the window and fell to her death.
In the café, which was once the chapel, drinking would spontaneously explode even when they are on the hands of servers. Empty glasses would also turn upside down on their own.

We stayed in 314. The hotel personnel were really great about accommodating my request to see the special places of the hotel for my blog. I asked about the basement “dungeon” area and was told it was completely converted to a laundry for the hotel.

This was a very fun visit, and very reasonably priced. We got a coupon to return for half price so we will be back!